Stay Tuned: 'The Chicago Code' treads familiar territory

Thursday

Apr 21, 2011 at 12:01 AMApr 21, 2011 at 9:12 PM

On television's version of Chicago, there are corrupt cops and corrupt alderman and corrupt mayors. Think you can get a permit approved or win a building contract without a payoff? Think again! This is a city where everyone has a handout and bribes are an art form. Some might even say it's a unique “code,” and by some I mean the creators of “The Chicago Code” (Fox, Mondays, 9 p.m.), the latest fictional take on the city, the criminals who run it and the cops who are trying to clean it up.

On television's version of Chicago, there are corrupt cops and corrupt alderman and corrupt mayors. Think you can get a permit approved or win a building contract without a payoff? Think again! This is a city where everyone has a handout and bribes are an art form. Some might even say it's a unique “code,” and by some I mean the creators of “The Chicago Code” (Fox, Mondays, 9 p.m.), the latest fictional take on the city, the criminals who run it and the cops who are trying to clean it up.

The premise of “The Chicago Code” is this: good cop is out to get bad cops and even worse politicians. I'm simplifying the plot, of course, but only because it's literally that simple.

Jennifer Beals, trading sexy sweatshirts for sensible pantsuits, brings the steely determination of her “Flashdance” role to the crusade of police superintendent Teresa Colvin. Colvin is on a mission to rid her department and her city of its criminal influence. Helping her is former partner and well-respected homicide detective Jarek Wysocki (Jason Clarke), whose friendship with Colvin gives him a level of power that causes tension with his fellow officers. Colvin's main nemesis is Ronin Gibbons (Delroy Lindo), a criminally inclined alderman who is anything but the man of the people he appears to be.

Like most police dramas, “The Chicago Code” follows a predictable structure of good versus evil. It tries to add a twist with an odd voiceover narration where the characters give information on their backgrounds, but the device feels more like a lazy approach to exposition than an original story-telling element. It's nice that a woman is placed in a position of power, and Beals plays Colvin with a strong balance of toughness and vulnerability, but S. Epatha Merkerson on “Law and Order” did it a decade ago. Alderman Gibbons is the classic slimy on the inside, charming on the outside corrupt politician, a characterization that again, is skillfully acted by Lindo but not original.

With familiar characters and a typical structure, “The Chicago Code” is wasting an opportunity to be a standout show. It's about Chicago — the city of Al Capone and Rod Blagojevich. Chicago's rich history of corruption doesn't have to be imagined by a fictional show because its real scandals are often too good to be true and practically monthly events. So any police drama that wants to take it on needs to offer characters and story lines that can compete with its real-life drama. Characters and plot can be secondary on a show like “Hawaii Five-O” because it's Hawaii — the cops investigate crimes with a shot of the ocean in the background. Chicago, on the other hand, deserves better. To do otherwise, is to do a disservice to a city that is: 1) cold and 2) legendary.

Melissa Crawley credits her love of all things small screen to her parents, who never used the line, "Or no TV!" as a punishment. Her book, “Mr. Sorkin Goes to Washington: Shaping the President on Television's 'The West Wing,’” was published in 2006. She has a PhD in media studies. To comment on Stay Tuned, e-mail her at staytuned2011@hotmail.com.